I'd like to thank Murdle for delighting me over and over these past few months, and I'd like to thank first year undergrad "intro to mathematical reasI'd like to thank Murdle for delighting me over and over these past few months, and I'd like to thank first year undergrad "intro to mathematical reasoning" for teaching me truth tables.
Han Kang is officially a "I would read your grocery list" author. Which is very different from being a 5 star author, and I will attempt to explain:
GrHan Kang is officially a "I would read your grocery list" author. Which is very different from being a 5 star author, and I will attempt to explain:
Greek lessons follows two characters who are disconnected from the world. One is losing his ability to see, and the other one seems to have lost her ability to speak. The former teaches ancient greek to the latter, and the book waxes poetics about ancient greek - on the voice between passive and active, on the complexity of the suffixes, on the difficulty of translation.
I'm enough of an etymology and grammar nerd to have thoroughly enjoyed those portions, but I especially enjoyed them when they were coupled with characters so deeply drowning in their own loneliness. This book is so bleak, and every sentence is oversaturated with melancholy, to the point where it can become too much. I put the book down for days at a time, and I don't see myself giving it a high rating. But I'm glad that I have a paperback of this, which was a pleasure to annotate.
Recommended if you're into "not plot just vibes" melancholic litfic, enjoy theorizing about the mechanics of language and what they mean for connection and communication, and want to be haunted by a text that you're not sure if you actually enjoyed. 3.75 rounded up....more
The bf and I go to a lot of used bookstores, and I'll often impulse buy something he recommends to me. This is one of such books, where he simply saidThe bf and I go to a lot of used bookstores, and I'll often impulse buy something he recommends to me. This is one of such books, where he simply said "this is literally you".
And yes, this is literally me. With depictions of what makes me happy, explanations about a need for solitude and social recharge time, and wholesome comics galore. I kind of want to give this book to my mom.
Highly recommended to my fellow tea drinking and book-loving INFJs, and my only criticism is that I wanted more. 4.75 stars on SG, rounded up to 5 on GR....more
(czytane po Polsku ale opinia pisana po angielsku)
Read in Polish, reviewing in English. This was the first book I read in Polish in close to 15 years,(czytane po Polsku ale opinia pisana po angielsku)
Read in Polish, reviewing in English. This was the first book I read in Polish in close to 15 years, and I cannot overstate how challenging that was. While it got easier as the book went on, I'm sure that that coloured my experience of it.
I'm a fan of "no plot just vibes" books, and this one hit the mark. The language choices were beautiful and I was awed by the haphazard descriptions of snowy fields by a forest, illegal border crossings, the night sky... This entire book felt like a meditation on our smallness and interconnectedness and inspired the same feeling of awe one gets when looking at the ocean or the night sky. It was also seeped in sorrow about powerlessness and the search of agency, with vignettes about teenage girls in small towns, young women traveling abroad, and refugees scrambling through an inhospitable forest towards a better life.
As a side note, this boom is what I expected from Olga Tokarczuk's Flights (Bieguni), a book I ended up DNFing. I'll try to find a Polish copy. I'd also like to return to Dom Oriona in a few years, as I continue reading in my native language - I have a feeling that I'll like this book even more when I'm older.
It feels weird to recommend this, as I'm not even sure if an English translation exists or is easily findable, and most of you don't speak Polish. But it's a great book it you're looking to lose yourself in sorrowful, meditative nostalgia. 3.75 stars on SG rounded up to 4 on GR....more
"insufferable" describes both her depression and the experience of reading this book and that's what makes it great.
I really admire Elizabeth's vulne"insufferable" describes both her depression and the experience of reading this book and that's what makes it great.
I really admire Elizabeth's vulnerability in making herself this vulnerable. This memoir tells the story of her illness, from first symptoms all the way through to chemical treatment that finally offered some relief. Although it's called prozac nation, the pill itself doesn't appear until the very end of the book and isn't actually the core focus of the story. Instead, the focus is the messy, self-centered mind of a teenager and then young adult trying to manage mental illness. Oftentimes badly. Oftentimes at the expense of people around her. Oftentimes in frustratingly relatable ways that made me want to dnf the book.
Reading this was both extremely painful and incredibly worth it. Prozac was similarly a turning point in my own illness, and this narrative brought back emotions and memories from the before times (and some after times). I appreciate how much self reflection this prompted and am glad I annotated a lot of the good bits so that I can revisit them (and there are so many good bits).
A final note: the epilogue and afterword are absolutely fantastic. They examine the bizarre phenomenon where clinical depression is both a serious illness and one that seemingly everyone seems to have nowadays. These sections tackle overprescription of antidepressants along with the under treatment of people who desperately need help. I found these sections incredibly rewarding to read after having finished the memoir.
Recommended if you've dabbled in depression lit in the past (we're talking girl interrupted, darkness visible, the bell jar), are ready for more, and don't mind witnessing firsthand how self-centered someone with the illness can be when they are trying to claw their way out.
To think that I wasn't going to pick up this book. To think I could've missed out on a family saga about grief with some light magic realism. To thinkTo think that I wasn't going to pick up this book. To think I could've missed out on a family saga about grief with some light magic realism. To think I could've missed out on meditations about identity, cultural relationships, immigration, and intergenerational trauma (spoken and unspoken)??
Unthinkable, truly.
Anyway that's essentially my review tbh. I was absolutely enamoured of this book and read it in essentially two sittings. The prose was lyrical, the nonlinear narrative delightful, and the characters were absolutely tragic. It made me feel things and reminded me most of Ruth Ozeki's the Book of Form and Emptiness, which I loved for very similar reasons.
I got an ebook from the library and the true tragedy is that I'll be losing my highlights. This book made me want to look into the goodreads quote feature again, so I could revel in the good passages until I reread a physical copy and enjoy the prose all over again.
Recommended if you're the child of political immigrants (hits home bro, I highlighted many a thing), enjoy the tension between love and sadness (what does that say about me), and don't mind a slow, lyrical, character-focused family tale.
I typed a long review and the Goodreads app ate it and I'm really sad.
Anyway, let's summarize the gist of it: I like my thrillers full of impossible I typed a long review and the Goodreads app ate it and I'm really sad.
Anyway, let's summarize the gist of it: I like my thrillers full of impossible decisions, no-win situations, and literary allusions. This had it all and I want more of whatever the heck this is. Loved it.
Recommended if you like the trolley problem more than a normal person should.
No plot just vibes sad girl vampire who watches Buffy, has a difficult relationship with her aging mother, and just graduated art school. Featuring a No plot just vibes sad girl vampire who watches Buffy, has a difficult relationship with her aging mother, and just graduated art school. Featuring a really weird relationship with food that'll resonate with anyone who considered but did not succeed in drastically altering their diet.
That's all folks. That's the book. And I loved it.
Recommended if you're into aching passages about food and food craving, traumatic mother-daughter bonds challenged by distance and dementia, and lots of pining. Kept me up until 3am so I could finish it and I underlined several passages, so it's earned full marks. 5 stars.
This is a "what the heck did I just read" kind of book that explores......something. Madness, I suppose, but also a family's response to that madness.This is a "what the heck did I just read" kind of book that explores......something. Madness, I suppose, but also a family's response to that madness. The lines between human, animal, and plant. The nature of reality, the significance of an individual life, the transience and insignificance of our little lives. There's something disturbingly nihilistic about this book, which presents some gruesome and truly bizarre but memorable scenes one after another.
I'm not quite sure what the point of the book was, and I despised several characters. And yet I was captivated by it and a few things have stayed in my mind. This book feels like a sore tooth that I can't ignore.
Recommended if you're into being profoundly confused and uncomfortable, are emotionally prepared for truly weird sexual scenes, and once had a dream that you were a tree.
I love stories of resilience, survival, and community support. I also love claustrophobic stories where disaster occurs largely off-screen and charactI love stories of resilience, survival, and community support. I also love claustrophobic stories where disaster occurs largely off-screen and characters need to deal with this major but not fully defined disaster.
Moon of the Crusted Snow is a gorgeously written novel following a modern anishnaabe community living in northern Canada. When an ill-defined disaster strikes, not only do the power and communication grids down but supplies of fuel and food from the south stop coming. The community is left to fend for themselves at the start of what will be a long winter. And then, a stranger comes to town...
Other than that, this is somewhat of a "nothing happens" book, where the main plot is predictable. This however works amazingly, since we get to focus on the intricacies of the culture and the community. As such, this familiar premise serves as an excellent backdrop for exploring tensions between modernity and tradition as well as themes of isolationism and the alpha-male type of survivalism seen in post apocalyptic settings.
Highly recommended but especially if you are interested in anishnaabe culture and enjoy "soft post-apocalypse" fiction that emphasizes humanity and explores the cost (and reward) of survival. I'll be looking forward to the sequel....more
Me @ the first section: nice Me @ the next few sections: ok a bit slow but nice Me @ the last section: uh
Wool is a page turner with a stellar opening. Me @ the first section: nice Me @ the next few sections: ok a bit slow but nice Me @ the last section: uh
Wool is a page turner with a stellar opening. The first portion was self published independently and I'm not surprised that the people clamoured for more. I'm also not surprised that it's been further picked up for a tv show (I saw the pilot before reading the book, haven't seen more yet).
I'm glad I read the book and saw the concept play out. What can I say - I'm a sucker for vertical Snowpiercer.
But the omnibus started losing me about 80% through. I like my sci fi focused on social commentary and dialed as far away from blockbuster action vibes as possible. I don't care when the side characters that our main character cares about die in a showdown that serves the plot filler. I don't care when our villain gets his comeuppance, when the main characters finally kiss, where the tone of the sequel is set in the next few pages to the point where you can hear the triumphant string soundtrack. This tone shift from the bleak and mysterious opening left me unsatisfied and staying up late reading low reviews. I agreed with a lot of them.
I'm not sure whether to continue with the series or with the tv show. The show pilot raised interesting ideas about reproductive control that I was disappointed to not see in the book. I'm not sure if I would have enjoyed the book more had I not seen that first episode.
Recommended if you too enjoy the idea of vertical Snowpiercer, like your doomsday books featuring a female protagonist (who, not to be that person, was surprisingly frequently naked), and are ok with plots with unambiguous morality....more
I'm a "How High We Go In the Dark" stan through and through but this was...pretty mid, as the kids say.
The author is a great writer capable of producI'm a "How High We Go In the Dark" stan through and through but this was...pretty mid, as the kids say.
The author is a great writer capable of producing beautiful and direct prose that ranges from funny to emotionally devastating. This collection did not however live up to my expectations, which were based on the later novel. I was hoping for more ethical and moral dilemmas, heartbreak, political commentary... But alas.
Thematically, these stories explore some fun perspectives on and retellings of Japanese legends and pop culture (Yokai and Kaiju galore). But alas, they're largely forgettable. Several of them read like polished writing exercises (perhaps from the author's MFA) - not bad, but not extraordinary. The bar was high and this book just didn't reach it for me.
That said, there were some good bits - I liked the experimental blurbs before each story. I really liked the "types of ghosts" afterlife guide. The titular story is about a dancing contagion, which is always fun. Child and parent loss were peppered in a few stories, which is a theme I found well developed here but better developed in the author's subsequent work. C'est la vie.
Recommended if you enjoy modern retellings of Japanese lore ans enjoy "fragment" style short stories. But please, don't use this as a benchmark when deciding whether to read the author's subsequent masterpiece....more
Loading...
